Guide: No White Cast Sunscreen. How to choose a sunscreen based on your skin tone.
Here is the dream- a mineral sunscreen for the face that has no white cast. If you have used our sunscreens at The Sunscreen Company, from either our Cyberderm or Ava Isa line of skincare, then you know the dream is a reality. We've done, we do it, we'll keep doing it. Many of you may be wondering how. What's the trick and what do I look for if I want to use other mineral sunscreens (we're a Canadian company and thus only slightly offended by this). We'll share some of our formulation tips and what a consumer can look for because we're all about sharing that wealth of knowledge.
Transparency is Relative
Let's first begin by clarifying the terms. The perception of transparency depends on skin type since what might work really well for someone with pale Skin Type I but will not work for someone with darker skin that is Type VI. You'll often see this with a lot of Skinfluencers that are demoing a mineral SPF; they will add the caveat that what works for them, might not work for all. To be clear, we do have formulas that are 100% transparent as in they will rub into the skin with some agitation to be completely invisible for all skin types. Our current best-selling mineral sunscreen, Ava Isa Sun-e-Serum Drops SPF 35 will apply after minimal blending to be clear or invisible on all skin types. We'll share why that is the case soon. Our Simply Zinc Ultra SPF 50 and our Simply Zinc Lite SPF 50 are more transparent than many options available on the market but are not quite as transparent as the Ava Isa. Why? We'll share that too below.
Using Fitzpatrick Skin Type as a tool
We find the Fitzpatrick Skin Type classification to be a helpful tool created and used by dermatologists to use a common language around skin tone. Don’t know your Fitzpatrick Skin Type? See below and then check out our recommendations for which sunscreen works for each one.
Which Fitzpatrick Skin Type are You?
Why make a sunscreen that is not 100% transparent?
You might be asking why even make a sunscreen that is not as transparent if you have the ability and knowledge to make it invisible? As a company, we believe in having a sunscreen for everyone: that is our idea of inclusivity. However, that does not mean that every individual sunscreen is perfect for everyone. Just like there is no one ideal texture of sunscreen, people have their unique preference. People also have their preferred use case and different protection needs. We have a sunscreen for your needs and we continue to develop more. If you could see and touch the ones we have in our pipeline- unique textures and feels. Our aim is to change the notion of what a mineral sunscreen can feel like and if you need help finding your perfect one, give us a shout at info@thesunscreencompany.com.
In the case of the Cyberderm Simply Zinc Ultra SPF 50 (tinted) and Cyberderm Simply Zinc Lite SPF 50 (untinted)- we wanted to maximize their protection. They are the best facial sunscreen options for those with melasma (we recommend Simply Zinc Ultra SPF 50 for the beneficial coloured iron oxides), other pigmentation disorders, a history of skin cancer or for those with light induced skin sensitivity due to a related disorder (like lupus). We started in a dermatologist’s office and these are our most heavy duty sunscreens with one of the highest possible UVA Protection Factors of 20 for a mineral sunscreen or almost of any sunscreen in North America. For context, most conventional soluble organic sunscreens/non-mineral have a UVA Protection Factor of 4-9. Our Ava Isa Sun-è-Serum Drops still have a nice high UVA Protection Factor of 15 but have a lower SPF of 35 due to the lack of Titanium Dioxide.
Transparency Killers
To be frank, titanium dioxide will always be less transparent than a possible dispersion of zinc oxide. This partially relates to particle size. Titanium dioxide has gotten more transparent as suppliers have made the particles smaller. The downside of a smaller particle size is that it shifts protection from short wave UVA to be predominantly UVB. For this reason, you should never use a mineral sunscreen that exclusively uses titanium dioxide as its active UV filter. It will not have any protection in the long wave UVA and would not be considered truly broad spectrum.
Transparency also relates to a scientific phenomenon called Index Matching where you match the Refractive Index of the particle in the carrier you are dispersing it into. Titanium Dioxide has a higher refractive index and is harder to match. We’ve found a supplier of zinc oxide that expertly matches the refractive index of the carrier (medium chain triglycerides) and this helps to make our sunscreens as transparent as they are.
If you are looking for a very transparent mineral option, it’s always great to start with the ingredient list in either the actives or inactives. If it contains titanium dioxide then you can think of it as having a stronger white background to the formula. You always have the option to tint the formula but if the tint does not match the underlying skin colour then you will see the difference. You therefore will need to find a tint that matches more closely whereas a transparent option will blend to be invisible. Titanium dioxide can also give a grey ashen aspect to the skin as well so something to consider. If you are a darker skin tone, then we highly recommend looking for a zinc oxide-only, mineral option. You are not 100% guaranteed that all options out there on the market will be transparent but you will have a better chance. Again, our Ava Isa Sun-è-Serum Drops SPF 35 and Ava Isa Every Morning Sunscreens are absolutely transparent, any skin tone can use them. Our new Ava Isa Every Morning SPF 30 dries transparent after rubbing it in, and only requires slightly more blending than our Sun-è-Serum Drops SPF 35. Our Simply Zinc’s are slightly less but great options if you need maximum protection.
Which Sunscreen is Best For Which Skin Tone?
Now that you have an understanding of what impacts transparency in sunscreens and what other considerations are important- we now have this handy visual for helping you to choose among our current sunscreen offerings.
That’s it for now! Thanks for reading our blog and learning more about sunscreen. Share with us your questions and what blog topics you would like us to handle next.
